Setting Sail at 63
Monday, June 17, 2024
I learned to sail when I was young so, on the face of it, there’s nothing remarkable about my “setting sail at 63.” But I have never set sail from Newport, Rhode Island for the distant shores of Bermuda, as crew on a 42-foot yacht in THE legendary Bermuda Race. And my women sailing friends tell me that it is, in fact, worth remarking over.
“Bon courage! I could never…! Are you really? Keep us posted!,” they have implored. And I do understand why. The race, the longest-running regularly sailed international ocean race in the world, is affectionately (?) known as the “thrash to the Onion Patch,” thanks to the high winds and big waves that usually accompany it. Add to these challenging conditions the rigors of a 4 hour on-4 hour off watch cycle for some 700 nautical miles, the need to sleep, my responsibility to feed the 10-person crew at watch changes, and it may be tough to do much writing, but I will try.
Today, we are at T-5 (or is it 4?) to launch. (Even wondering how to describe the countdown reminds me that there is a whole language to this sport that one must pick up along the way, sometimes asking, sometimes just nodding along with a note to look it up later.) The race begins Friday, June 21 from Newport Harbor. With different yacht classes crossing the line in a series of starts beginning at 2:00 pm and with spectator viewing from such prominent perches as Fort Adams and Castle Hill and live streamed, it will be an afternoon of extraordinary fanfare, cheering crowds of thousands, and tremendous camaraderie among the sailors in the 160 or so registered sailing vessels. Yet every sailor will also be turning inward to focus sharply on the marathon task: leaving behind the security of coastal sailing to cross 700 miles of open ocean where nearly anything can happen.
Atalanta, my husband Kurt’s and my J42, is a truly wonderful sailboat. Built in 2000, she’s been ours since 2015 when we bought her from close friends who loved and cared well for her. In their hands, she was a family cruising boat. With Kurt’s vision that she could be a great racing vessel, We have modified her rigging, added a bow sprit, loaded up on sails for various wind conditions and points of sail, and turned her into a strong racing contender. In 2023, she/we performed well on her/our first ocean race from Marblehead, MA to Halifax, Nova Scotia, placing second in our division. This year, we captured first place in the Edlu distance race on Long Island Sound, the “season opener,” and a respectable third in a challenging race Around Block Island. Atalanta is sturdy, tried, and true, though this race could test her in a whole new way.
And it’s likely to test me in a whole new way, which will be the topic of my blog. Until we moved to Larchmont in 2014, I had primarily sailed dinghies, and it had been a long time since I had done that. I have often said that there should be a different name for the sport of sailing small boats - where it’s you, the sails, the rudder, and the wind - vs. big boats, with all their instrumentation. But, as I have grown more comfortable on larger boats, I have come to see that it’s still all about sails and the wind.
As we embark on this great adventure, we will be looking for fair winds and following seas.